Here’s what really matters when it comes to kids and screens… and it isn’t time

When it comes to kids’ screen time, it may be less important to focus on how long kids use devices and focus on how they use devices.

Researchers in Australia analyzed more than 2,000 studies involving more than 2 million children to determine the benefits and harms of screen time in children.

They found that with screens it was more important to consider the type of content being viewed rather than how long the content was viewed.

Overall, higher screen time was linked to poorer learning outcomes, but a “more complex” picture emerged when the type of screen time was taken into account, researchers said.

In a research briefing published in Nature Human behaviorwrote the researchers from Australian Catholic University: ‘We found that it is the nature of the interaction that matters.

‘It is clear that digital platforms can have benefits, such as delivering interventions to improve educational outcomes.

‘But digital platforms can also lead to damage. Social media was a clear example of this: we consistently saw associations with harmful consequences such as depression and risk taking and found no meta-analyses indicating a benefit.’

The participants in the review were all under the age of 18.

Research shows that the average American teenager spends 7.5 hours in front of a screen every day. Older children (or tweens) spend nearly five hours a day on devices.

The researchers searched databases for meta-analyses – articles that analyzed the results of more than one other study – on screen time and children.

The 681 studies reviewed covered television time, as well as time spent watching tablets, phones, computers and games consoles.

They found that children who watched TV with a parent improved their literacy compared to those who were glued to the screen alone.

This finding made no mention of how long the parent and child watched television together.

Researchers suggested that watching television with parents can improve reading scores because parents often drive where the child is watching, increasing the likelihood that they are watching an educational program.

They can also ask a child questions about the program, which encourages children to engage and research the topic.

A similar association was found with video games, which were only useful if the games were designed to teach math skills: the ability to understand and work with numbers.

Researchers also found that viewing advertisements on digital devices such as televisions and computers was more likely to lead to unhealthier food choices.

Social media was also ‘consistently’ associated with poor health and showed ‘no indication of potential benefit’, the team said.

There was strong evidence that social media use increased the risk of depression and harmful behaviors such as unsafe sex and substance abuse, she added.

Overall, the results showed that screens can be effective in delivering learning outcomes, but are not necessarily more effective than other methods.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warns that ‘excessive’ screen time can affect brain development and that too much screen time has been linked to obesity, poor sleep, language delays and behavioral problems.

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages media use, with the exception of video chatting, in children under 18 months.

For children ages 18 months to two years, the AAP recommends only “high quality” content and not allowing the child to watch it alone.

For children aged two to five years, screen time should be limited to one hour.

Dr. Murthy has also suggested that 13 is too young for children to be on social media platforms because, although sites allow children of that age to join, children are still “developing their identities.”

In the latest article, the researchers recommend updating the guidelines to shift the focus away from minimizing screen time to the type of screen use.

The guidelines should be reformulated to discourage high use of social media and the internet, but adapted to promote the use of educational apps and video games.